Dec 27, 2014

In this update: Capture 3D transforms the Eagle from reality to virtual!

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Today Ed Shadle, Von Armstrong, Les Holm, Don Mitchell and Keith Zanghi met Micah Carter and Tristan Sharp from Capture 3D. Based out of Costa Mesa, California, with offices in six strategic locations around the United States including the Pacific Northwest, Capture 3D provides reverse engineering tools that work really great! Today the team will be using an ATOS Triple Light Scanner, sometimes called a blue light scanner.

Keith, Les, Don, Tristan and Micah

The Eagle has been transformed from reality to virtual!

Tristan applies targets to the Eagle

Micah Carter applying targets to the underside of the horizontal stabilizer

Ready for photogrammetry

The first thing that must be done is to place coded and uncoded targets onto the vehicle. This is easy since success depends upon the scanner to pick up random locations so it can uniquely identify (with software) that location. The approximately 1/2 inch round targets are called uncoded and the larger targets are called codedtargets. That is because they have a uinique identifier that the software can recognize.

Photogrammetry captures all the targets in the computer

After the targets have been placed on the vehicle, the next step in the process is to take hundreds of photographs. This is called photogrammetry, and as each photo is taken, it is sent to the computer. In this scan the guys took over 271 photographs. Each photograph must contain at least three targets. In this case, more is better and provides higher accuracy.

The Scans

What you are looking at are the scanned images from the collection of millions of points called a point cloud. The data can now be exported to Geomagic Software by Don Mitchell, who will convert the data into surfaces. He will then merge it with our previous scans of the car to make one complete 100 percent scan. From there, Darren Grove will import the surfaces into PointWise where they will be converted into a CFD mesh. PointWise Software helps us fill up all the open spots and makes a solid CFD mesh.

Following the PointWise CFD Mesh creation, Darren then uses Metacomp Technologies CFD ++ software to perform CFD flow solutions. The car is divided into 20 millon cells, then we measure the airspeed over each cell about a 1000 times.

A new level of support from Lenovo is changing the landscape in our operations. In the very near future, the Landspeed.com website will be residing on servers on loan from Lenovo. A new ThinkServer will now be hosting all the content from the website, and provide storage for our engineering and intellectual property needs.

Afterburner Docking Stations

Lenovo is heavily embedded into our daily operations, with ThinkPads and ThinkStations providing support for website production, engineering consisting of mechanical and structural analysis and aerodynamic capabilities. Now we are pleased to announce the addition of new Lenovo ThinkServers to the North American Eagle™ team.

ThinkPad, ThinkStation and now ThinkServer

Mobile Apps Keep Improving!

We like to keep introducing new features for all of our mobile users, but sometimes it’s important to give it a new look as well. We are excited to announce that NAE Mobile 3.1 for iOS is now available! It has a new interface that looks absolutely incredible. The update also includes support for the new iPhone 5S and iPhone 5C. We highly recommend that you upgrade to iOS 7 so that you can take full advantage of this update. Download the app by clicking on the App Store logo below.

For all of our Android users, we have released an updated version of NAE Mobile, which now includes Android 4.4 KitKat Compatibility! You can download the update by going to the Google Play Store.

Follow us on Twitter @landspeed763

Eric Wittler’s Chasing Clounds.net provides images to the North American Eagle™

About

The North American Eagle project began as nothing more than an idea. That idea was to take a jet fighter, and turn it into the fastest racing machine in history. Together, Ed Shadle and Keith Zanghi founded a project with a goal to go supersonic, and break the World Land Speed Record of 763 MPH. Along the way, countless people have joined together to push the boundaries of speed, to see just how fast this car can go.

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